Criminal Justice Policy Issue: Domestic Terrorism

Introduction

In the modern global environment characterized by the advanced social system, there are numerous criminal justice issues that ought to be addressed. In other words, innocent civilians face different challenges in the hands of criminals. However, there is the criminal justice system that must keep all the communities safer, foster prevention, as well as the rehabilitation, and in the end, ensure equal and fair justice. However, in too many ways and in too many places, there are systems that are falling short of their mandate, a situation that often leads to the devastating consequences. With the increasing criminal justice issues in the globalized world, the United States is saddled with the unfair, outdated, as well as the bloated criminal justice system that disrupts the communities and drains the resources. There are diverse criminal justice issues that every justice system must deal with. Therefore, these systems often have different strategies and approach to ensure that people are safer and in addition, ensure the reduction on the criminal activities that threaten the economic, social, and political system. The justice systems need to carry out research on different criminal activities and establish an appropriate mechanism to deter criminal activities. One of the main criminal issues faced by criminal justice systems is Domestic Terrorism.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Identification of the Issue

The issue that needs to be addressed is domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism has been in existence for a long period of time and it has influenced the social and political structures in the United States for decades. Domestic terrorist activities began immediately after the civil war when the formal American military forces were defeated by the civilians. The war led to a high number of disparate and displaced civilians and veterans who lacked specific economic activity (Moghadam, 2017). The widespread destitute conditions and poverty, as well as the increased attitude of Whiteman supremacy, led to the increased lawlessness leading to the rise of domestic terrorist networks. The Ku Klux Klan was formed to restore the Whiteman supremacy and to restore law and order (LaFree Dugan & Miller, 2014). The group started engaging in criminal activities with the aim of intimidating the government and the formal military. With the advancement in the social and political cultures, there has been the rise of various terrorist groups either operating independently or through sponsorship by different influential leaders. While the security forces put more focus on the external attacks, the domestic terrorist is always on the verge of causing criminal activities for the benefits of their sponsors. With the current political tension and the advancing ethnic diversities within the United States of American, domestic terrorism is increasingly becoming a major concern to the government and the security forces. Most of the domestic terrorism activities are caused by the foreign-born terrorist who comes to the United States either as tourists or immigrants (Ramsey, 2017).

Domestic terrorism is, therefore, a criminal activity that interferes with various activities not only in the United States but also in other different parts of the world. According to Nowrasteh (2016), the foreign born-terrorist were involved in the murder of 3,023 out of 3433 deaths of people caused by terrorists within the United States of America between the year 1975 and 2015. With the immigration policies allowing many people from different parts of the world to enter the United States, controlling domestic terrorism often becomes more challenging as the immigrants usually come with different motives. There are foreigners who come to the US either sponsor or join the domestic terrorist networks with the aim of executing criminal activities. Even though there are security plans that tend to minimize the activities of the domestic terrorists, there are still numerous cases of attacks that originate from people within the country. In most cases, some of the issues are not always planned and because they are committed by the people who are either suffering from mental illnesses or those who have other issues that force them to launch malicious attacks. Domestic terrorism is always involved in the violence against the civilians or even the infrastructure of a nation. The main aim of causing domestic violence is to coerce intimidate and influence national policies. In most cases, the national security organization addresses the security situation and find ways of encountering the planned attacks that may lead to the death or injury of innocent civilians. The national security councils also aimed at preventing and mitigating terrorist activities and in addition, improve the disaster preparedness, recovery and response (Piazza, 2011). The national capability of terrorism prevention which encompasses the traditional law-enforcement actions often look into the individual radicalization to violence, a major cause of domestic terrorism. National security agencies often rely on federal and non-governmental efforts to avert terrorist activities.

The increasing number of domestic terrorist networks has led to an increase in the ideas of the eradication policies by different governmental organizations. Many people have been involved in the debates on the degree of force acceptable in the eradication processes considering that the criminals are citizens guided by the same law. In the year 1995, President Bill Clinton introduced a security bill in the House of Representative and in the Senate (Sudbury, 2014). The counterterrorism bill seeks to incorporate the Department of Defense in the investigation of the domestic terrorism activities where biological or chemical weapons are used to cause mass killings of the innocent civilians. Before the bill, the Department of Defense only took part in the investigation of attacks where devices or nuclear weapons are used. Additionally, President George Bush formulated the Department of Homeland security after the incidence of 9/11 to secure the nation from domestic terrorism through investigation and eradication of different domestic terrorist network (Guard, 2009). Although the United States government is putting a lot of concerns to safeguard the public, there are cases that often proves difficult to control. There are terrorists who operate individually and with the legal possession of firearms, they are able to execute attacks at any given time. The domestic terrorist activities often result from hatred and racism. An individual may decide to kill people just because of their race or the position they hold in the government. Such individual may also be used by prominent people to cause the assassination of prominent leaders (President of the United States, 2015). Although security forces are always in a constant investigation to unhide the domestic criminal networks as the criminals, many attackers can only be arrested for a criminal incidence.

The current domestic terrorist groups in the United States of America are mostly anti-government, political or anarchists in their motivations. They often adhere to their growing self-determination, radicalized citizen-militia movements, and they have been operating in America for a long period of time and as such, they are permanent citizens born and raised in the United States of America. The growing self-determination of the domestic terrorists has brought a lot of considerable attention and occasioned cautious concerns from the security departments as well as the civil rights groups (Gries, Krieger, & Meierrieks, 2011). The continuing and rapid growth of the domestic terrorist groups is forcing law enforcement officers to identify new ways of combating crimes and to safeguard innocent citizens. There are few citizen-militia groups or domestic terrorists who are usually motivated by the idea of the new world order. They often formulate the conspiracy theories and direct their anger through a belief that the government has become more repressive and bigger over time. They usually come out publicly to criticize the government and suggest ways on how to overthrow the entire federal government. The above groups which often describe themselves as constitutionalists are considered by the security departments as dangerous groups capable of causing domestic terrorism. The government has always launched persistent investigations against these groups of people to ensure that they do not cause any form of criminal activity that can endanger the lives of innocent civilians.

The potential danger posed to the United State citizens by the domestic terrorist groups is directly influenced by their links to the convicted criminals as well as their deep affiliation with the organized crimes. The domestic terrorist not only carry out the attacks but they also engage in criminal activities like robbery, drug trafficking as a way of accumulating funds to attain their higher goals. The recruitment process for domestic terrorists always involves an individual who is able and is willing to carry out the required tasks by the sponsors (Gries, Krieger, & Meierrieks, 2011). The domestic terrorists emerge from different groups advocating for different rights. Extremist groups like the animal-rights group, homosexual-rights group, environmental right groups, and Earth night action groups have led to the emergence of different domestic terrorist groups within the United States of America. The above extremist groups have often used violence, intimidation, and destruction to gain public attention and to facilitate their political agendas.

Significance of the Domestic Terrorism

The issue of domestic terrorism is significant not only in the United States but in other parts of the world where terrorism has claimed the lives of people innocent people. The issue of domestic terrorism is weighty as it has led to the physical destruction of properties and economic interferences. Domestic terrorist are always involved in the destruction of the transportation systems, existing plants as well as the different economic resources (National Counterterrorism Center, n.d.). Domestic terrorism often engages in the large-scale attacks and as a result, it can results in the destruction of billions of dollars' worth of resources and in addition, results in the deaths of thousands of productive workers. The effect of domestic terrorist activities is usually negative to the economy, and the physical destructions are always the main reason. During the domestic terrorist attacks, the productive resources that can enhance the generation of valuable goods and services are destroyed. Therefore, there is always the need for the security agencies to put a lot of resources to avert the activities of the domestic terrorism to safeguard the economy as well as the social life of different people (Sudbury, 2014).

The technological advancement specifically in the weapons fields, transportation, and communication has facilitated the operation of modern domestic terrorists (Hegghammer & Nesser, 2015). The above situation has raised a lot of concerns in the security department as the domestic terrorists are able to improve their capacity in executing violent actions with the aim of achieving their goals. With the advancement in communication systems, individuals within different terrorist networks are able to communicate promptly before identifying the best place to carry out attacks (Nowrasteh, 2016). Since a lot of focus is often put on the possible attacks from the external militia groups, the foreign attackers have resort to using the domestic terrorist to achieve their objectives of causing mass killings. They often offer funds and all the resources required by th...